The Salisbury man who authorities say sold an undercover officer a machine gun that he had illegally will serve 13 months in federal prison.

After he pleaded guilty in October to unlawful possession of a machine gun and possession of an unregistered firearm, federal court records show a judge sentenced Kenneth Perry on Jan. 7.

He was arrested in May after investigators executed federal search and seizure warrants on his Salisbury home and Ford F-150.

They recovered 28 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and tools to convert firearms from semi-automatic to fully automatic, according to documents. Among the firearms seized was a semi-automatic weapon that investigators said appeared to have been converted into a fully automatic machine gun.

A stipulation of facts attached to Perry's plea agreement notes that he was lawfully allowed to possess 22 firearms and that the serial numbers and ownership status of the recovered firearms were still under investigation at the time of the document's filing.

However, court records show that wasn't the first time the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had encountered a machine gun in Perry's possession since it began looking into his activities in early 2018.

That investigation revealed he had been selling firearms — including fully automatic machine guns that didn't have serial numbers — without a license, according to documents. An undercover officer working on the case made purchases from Perry in April and May.

An ATF officer's examination and test firing of the first firearm purchased determined it had been designed to shoot as a fully automatic weapon and fit the definition of a machine gun, according to documents.

In the undercover officer's audio recording of that sale, documents state Perry can be heard saying saying, "You can get in more trouble for having this thing right here than you can for selling crack to six year olds ... It's full auto."

Because the weapon had never been registered to Perry in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, documents indicate his possession of the machine gun was illegal.

Perry also sold the undercover officer an "AR style" lower receiver and upper receiver, which were detached, according to documents, because he said, "I can't sell this to you put together."

However, documents say the lower receiver was determined to be a firearm and possession of both "constitutes constructive possession of a firearm having a barrel less than 16 inches in length," or what's known as a short-barreled rifle.

Investigators concluded he sold the pair detached in an effort to thwart the law, and a search of the NFRTR revealed those firearm components weren't legally registered to him, which meant he wasn't allowed to have them.

The search and seizure warrants were served a little more than a week after that sale was made, documents show, at which time Perry also agreed to speak with investigators. During that interview, records say Perry admitted to learning by accident how to make fully automatic weapons and then selling them to people.

As part of the plea agreement, the other charges Perry faced — unlicensed dealing in firearms and a second count of possession of an unregistered firearm — were dismissed.

Case records show the judge sentenced him to 13 months on each charge he pleaded guilty to and ordered that they be served concurrently, for a total sentence of 13 months. Perry will also have two years of supervised probation after his release.